ing of my tongue and I thine, moft truly falfely, muft needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, doft thou understand thus much English? canft thou love me? Cath. I cannot tell.

K. Henry. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I know thou loveft me; and at night when you come into your clofet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to her difpraise those parts in me, that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully, the rather, gentle Princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou beeft mine, Kate, (as I have saving faith within me tells me thou fhalt), I get thee with fcambling; and thou must therefore needs prove a good foldier-breeder: shall not thou and I, between St. Dennis and St. George, compound a boy half French half English, that fhall go to Conftantinople, and take the Turk by the beard? fhall we not? What fay't thou, my fair Flower-de-luce.

Cath. I do not know dat

vour for

my

K. Henry. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promife; do but now promife, Kate, you will endeayour French part of such a boy; and for English moiety, take the word of a King and a bachelor. How answer you, La plus belle Catharine du monde, mon trés-chere & divine deeffe?

Cath. Your Majestee ave fause French enough to deceive de most fage damoifel dat is en France.

K. Henry. Now, fie upon my false French; by mine honour, in true English I love thee, Kate; by which honour I dare not fwear thou loveft me, yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou doit, notwithstanding the poor and untempting effect of my vifage. Now befhrew my father's ambition: he was thinking of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I created with a stubborn outfide, with an aspect of iron, that when I come to woo ladies I fright them. but in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better i fhall appear. My comfort is, that old age (that ill layer up of beauty can do no more fpoil upon my face. Thou haft me, if thou haft me, at the worft; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; and therefore tell me, most fair VOL. IV. Catharine,

T t

Catharine, will you have me? Put off your maidenbluthes, avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an Empress; take me by the hand, and say, Harry of England, I am thine: which word thou fhalt no fooner blefs mine ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud, England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though I speak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the best King, thou fhalt find the beft King of good fellows. Come, your answer in broken mufic; for thy voice is mufic, and thy English broken: therefore, Queen of all, Catharine, break thy mind to me in broken Englith; wilt thou have me?

Cath. Dat is as it fhall please le Roy mon pere.

K. Henry. Nay, it will pleafe him well, Kate; it fhall pleafe him, Kate.

Cath. Den it fhall alfo content me.

K. Henry. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my Queen.

Cath. Laiffez, mon Seigneur, laiffez, laiffez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaiez votre grandeur, en baifant la main d'une voftre indigne ferviteure; excufez moy, je vous fupplic, mon très-puillant Seigneur.

K. Henry. Then I will kifs your lips, Kate. Cath. Les dames & damoifels pour eftre baifées devant leur nopees, il n'eft pas le coutume de France.

K. Henry. Madam my interpreter, what fays fhe? Lady. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France; I cannot tell what is baiffer en English. K. Henry. To kifs.

Lady. Your Majefty entendre bettre que moy.

K. Henry. Is it not a fashion for the maids in France to kifs before they are married, would fhe fay'? Lady. Quy, vrayement.

K. Henry. O Kate, nice cuftoms curt'fie to great Kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confin'd within the weak lift of a country's fafhion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our places, ftops the mouth of all find-faults; as I will do your's, for the upholding the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kifs: therefore patiently and yielding. [Kiffing her.] You have witchcraft in your

lips, Kate; there is more eloquence in a touch of them, than in the tongues of the French council; and they fhould fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father,

Enter the French King and Queen, with French and English Lords.

Burg. God fave your Majefty! my Royal coufin, teach you our Princess English?

K. Henry. I would have her learn, my fair coufin, t - how perfectly I love her, and that is good English. Burg. Is the apt?

K. Henry. Our tongue is rough, and my condition is not fmooth; fo that having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot fo conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness.

Burg. Pardon the franknefs of my mirth, if I anfwer you for that. If you would conjure in her, you muft make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then, being a maid yet ros'd over with the virgin-crimfon of modefty, if the deny the appearance of a naked blind boy, in her naked feeing self? It were, my Lord, a hard condition for a maid to confign to. K. Henry. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and inforces.

Burg. They are then excus'd, my Lord, when they fee not what they do.

K. Henry. Then, good my Lord, teach your coufin to confent to winking.

Burg. I will wink on her to confent, my Lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning. Maids, well fummer'd and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes: and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.

K. Henry. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot fummer and fo I fhall catch the flie your coufin in the latter end, and she must be blind too.

Burg. As love is, my Lord, before it loves.

K. Henry. It is fo; and you may some of you thank love for my blindness, who cannot fee many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that ftands in

my way.

Fr. King. Yes, my Lord, you fee them perfpectively; the cities turn'd into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden-walls, that war hath never enter'd. K. Henry. Shall Kate be my wife?

Fr. King. So please you.

K. Henry. I am content, fo the maiden cities you talk may wait on her; fo the maid that ftood in the way for my wifh, fhall fhew me the way to my will.

of

Fr. King. We have confented to all terms of reason, K. Henry. Is't fo, my Lords of England ? Weft. The King hath granted every article: His daughter firft; and then in fequel all, According to their firm propofed nature.

Exe Only he hath not yet fubfcribed this: Where your Majesty demands, That the King of France, having occafion to write for matter of grant, fhall name your Highness in this form, and with this addition in French, Noftre très-cher filz Henry Roy d'Angleterre, héretier de France; and thus in Latin, Præcarissimus filius nofter Henricus Rex Anglia, & heres Francia.

Fr. King. Yet this I have not (brother) fo deny'd, But your request shall make me let it pafs

K. Henry. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, Let that one article rank with the reft,

And thereupon give me your daughter.

Fr. King.

ake her, fair fon, and from her blood raise up

Iffue to me that thefe contending kingdoms
England and France, whofe very fhores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and Chriftian-like accord
In their sweet breafts; that never war advance
His bleeding fword 'twixt England and fair France.-
Lords Amen!

K. Henry. Now welcome, Kate; and bear me witnefs all,

That

That here I kifs her as my Sovereign Queen. [Flourish.
2. a. God, the best maker of all marriages,
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one:
As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms fuch a fpoufal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of bleffed marriage,
Thruft in between the paction of these kingdoms,
To make divorce of their incorporate league;
That English may as French, French Englishmen,
Receive each other. God speak this Amen!

All. Amen!

[day,

K. Henry. Prepare we for our marriage, on which My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath And all the peers, for furety of our leagues. Then fhall I fwear to Kate, and you to me; And may our oaths well kept and prosp'rous be!

Enter Chorus.

Thus far with rough and all-unable pen

[Exeunt.

Our blending author hath purfu'd the story; In little room confining mighty men,

Mangling by starts the full courfe of their glory Small time, but, in that fmall, moft greatly liv'd This ftar of England. Fortune made his fword; By which the world's best garden he achiev'd,

And of it left his fon imperial Lord.

Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King
Of France and England, did this King fucceed
Whofe ftate fo many had i' th' managing,

That they loft France, and made his England bleed: Which oft our ftage hath fhown; and, for their fake, In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

The